Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived near a wood. She lived with her mother who was a widow and so, the mother had to do everything for herself and her daughter. They were poor and often did not have enough to eat. One day, there was no food for them to eat and they had to go hungry.
The little girl was so hungry that she could not think of anything but her hunger. She thought that if she went and played in the wood she would be able to get her mind off her hunger.
The little girl went and tried to play in the wood but she was so hungry that she couldn’t play. The poor, little girl sat down under a tree and cried because she was so hungry.
Suddenly, an old woman stood before her and asked her why she was crying. “I am so hungry” sobbed the little girl.
The old woman said ‘You will never go hungry again” and gave the little girl a small pot. “When you are hungry just tell the pot “cook little pot, cook. The pot will always cook you some delicious porridge. When you want the pot to stop cooking say stop, little pot, stop”.
The little girl was so hungry and excited that she wanted to cook some porridge at once.
She set the little pot on a tree stump and said “cook little pot, cook” and the little pot started to bubble away at once. Soon, it was full of delicious porridge. Then the little girl said “stop little pot, stop” and the pot stopped cooking.
The little girl ate all the porridge. Then she thanked the old woman who had been watching with a pleased smile on her face. After this, the little girl ran home to her mother with the magic, porridge pot tucked under her arm.
When the girl’s mother saw the pot and heard her daughter’s story she was happy and wanted some porridge as she too was very hungry. The little pot was made to cook porridge again and the mother and daughter enjoyed some porridge. They never went hungry again for the magic porridge pot always cooked delicious porridge for them.
One day, the girl decided to go for a walk as it was a nice day. While she was out, her mother suddenly felt hungry and decided to eat some porridge.
She took the magic porridge pot from the shelf and set it to cook. When the porridge was ready the woman ate and went about her work. But, she forgot to tell the magic porridge pot “stop, little pot, stop”.
The pot bubbled away merrily cooking loads of porridge and soon the porridge started overflowing. The porridge ran on to the table and then on to the floor and kept on flowing. The woman returned to the kitchen and was horrified to see the river of porridge. But she couldn’t remember the magic words to stop the pot from cooking porridge.
The porridge soon covered the little cottage and garden and ran out to the street and then started covering the whole village. The villagers had to wade through mounds of porridge to attend to their work. The little girl returned and was amazed and horrified to find porridge all over the village. When the woman saw her daughter she cried out “Please tell the pot to stop cooking”. The girl quickly waded through the porridge, went to the kitchen and told porridge the pot, “stop, little pot, stop”. The pot stopped cooking at once but it took a long while to clear the porridge from the house,garden and the village. -Source Internet